THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A Tamil - Malayalam dictionary with more than 40,000 old and new words has been prepared by Dr. T. Vijayalakshmi, a native of Palakkad Mudalamada, a professor of Tamil Department in University of Kerala, translator and writer. This is the result of eight years of toil and struggle.

An English-English-Tamil dictionary given to her by her uncle at the age of 10 was the one that made Vijayalakshmi love dictionaries. From 2002 to 2007, she was a translator in the Legal Department of the Secretariat. Despite passing LLB, she became a college teacher in 2007 due to her love for Tamil language. She also loved Malayalam along with Tamil. Project submitted to Kerala University in 2015 for a Tamil - Malayalam dictionary for college students was approved immediately. In 2017, funding stopped due to political reasons, leaving enough assistants to write and research alone. Sensing the plight, Dr. Subhash of Malayalam Lexicon came to help. Funds were released after current VC Dr Mohan Kunummel took charge. (The university sanctioned a total of Rs. 11 lakhs). The first Tamil-Malayalam dictionary was released by Governor Arif Mohammad Khan at Raj Bhavan yesterday.

Her husband Shyamkumar is an officer in the legal department of the secretariat. Eldest son Pranav Nandan is a final year graduate student. Younger son Gautam Nandan is a plus two student in Sarvodaya.

Dr T Vijayalakshmi is preparing to go to America as a visiting professor in August through the Indian Council for Cultural Relations.